Writing Journal Y2 Day 311

by Patrick Hester • November 6, 2012 • Comments Off on Writing Journal Y2 Day 311

Despite having random issues with my laptop, I’ve managed to do make some decent progress on the Epic Fantasy. I had set myself a goal of 100,000 words for the novel and I hit that yesterday. Problem is, I’m not at the end of the story. I’ve had a lot of people tell me that Epic Fantasies are, by definition, huge. They have massive word counts and I get that, I’ve read and enjoyed many of those books, but I want something slimmer for my own book.

Don’t get me wrong, I wrote a massive Epic Fantasy about a decade ago (168,000 words). I just don’t want that for this piece, so I’m trying to keep it as a tighter book.

With that in mind, and knowing that I’m near the end but need more words to get there, I’ve changed the goal to 125,000 words.

At my last writers group meeting, I told someone not to worry about the wordcount, just to write the story. I stand by those words and advice. Sometimes I feel like I get hung up on wordcount. However, I know myself and how I work. For me, wordcounts and goals fuel me and push me forward. When I knew I was approaching the 100,000 word point, I pushed myself and kept writing until I hit that mark. Daily goals (as seen in the screen shot above), also spur me forward. Without them, I might not go an extra hour or ignore the laundry til 10 pm.

Now I’ve given myself 25,000 more words to finish the story. I’ve already started my characters down the road, split them up, given them challenges specific to them that tie back to where they started. Time to bring everything full circle and give them (and the reader) some closure.

Oh. Another thing that helps motivate me is my writers group. They’re going to start reading this story at the end of November. Even though, at 50 page chunks, it will take them many months to catch up to where I am today, the thought of not having the end ready for them to read when they get there terrifies me. I have to have it ready, have to be finished.

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Patrick Hester is a Paladin, an author, blogger and a 2013 Hugo Award Winner. He is also a Hugo Nominated Podcast Producer/Host who lives in Colorado and writes science fiction and fantasy (mostly)...[click to read more]